Research
Research on geospatial work
Official statistics, practical briefs and published research for people who work, or want to work, in geospatial. Every figure has its source beside it.
Start with your question
- What does the work pay?Official pay for mapping, surveying and geography roles in the UK and the US.
- How do I judge an offer, an advert and my next skill?A short brief on comparing pay, checking eligibility and choosing what to learn.
- Where could my career go next?Roadmaps for geospatial roles, with the skills and steps for each.
- How do I prepare for an interview?Common and technical geospatial questions, with hints and sample answers.
- How do I make a QGIS map I can trust?A 25-minute guided exercise you can follow on your own or teach.
- Can I add what I know?The State of Geospatial survey: your role, tools, skills and, if you choose, your pay.
How to read the numbers
- Official statistics count employees by national occupation group. They are not advertised salaries, and no country has an occupation called GIS analyst, so we show the nearest groups and say which they are.
- ONS rates how precise each estimate is: precise up to a 5% coefficient of variation, reasonably precise up to 10%, acceptable up to 20%. Above 20% it does not publish the figure, and neither do we.
- Job adverts show what employers ask for, but they are not a sample of the whole market. These guides explain why: ONS: measuring labour demand using online adverts (opens in a new tab) and OECD: online postings compared with national sources (opens in a new tab).
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